River turns green for St Patrick's Day

Crowds cheered and bagpipes bellowed as New York City's annual Saint Patrick's
Day parade kicked off Saturday, and people with a fondness for anything
Irish began a weekend of festivities from the Louisiana bayou to Dublin.

3:35PM GMT 17 Mar 2013

Crowds cheered and bagpipes bellowed as New York City's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade kicked off Saturday, and people with a fondness for anything Irish began a weekend of festivities from the Louisiana bayou to Dublin.

With the holiday itself falling on a Sunday, many celebrations were scheduled instead for Saturday because of religious observances.

In New York City, the massive parade, which predates the United States, was led by 750 members of the New York Army National Guard.

The 1st Battalion of the 69th Infantry has been marching in the parade since 1851.

Michael Bloomberg took in his last Saint Patrick's Day parade as Mayor, waving to a cheering crowd as snowflakes fell on Fifth Avenue.

Marching just behind him was Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who presented Bloomberg with a historic Irish teapot earlier.

Hundreds of thousands lined the parade route in New York, cheering the marching bands, dance troupes and politicians.

In central Chicago, Illinois, thousands along the Chicago River cheered as workers on a boat dumped dye into the water, turning it a bright fluorescent green for at least a few hours in an eye-catching local custom.

Thousands of revellers gaudily garbed in green crammed the oak-shaded squares and pavements of central Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday, for a celebration that's a 189-year-old tradition.

Led by bagpipers in green kilts, a parade kicked off on Saturday morning, hours after customers began lining up at bars in the centre.

More than 1,000 worshippers also packed the pews of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist for the Mass that traditionally precedes the parade.

Eamon Gilmore, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said he skipped a visit to Georgia for Savannah's Saint Patrick's Day parade because he didn't want to attend a dinner where only men were allowed.

Mr Gilmore was referring to the annual dinner of the Hibernian Society of Savannah, founded 201 years ago by Irish immigrants in coastal Georgia.

The group's President, William H Bruggeman, said that Mr Gilmore was never formally invited but that the Hibernians would have enjoyed having him.